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What words do you habitually misspell?

Although I'm a good speller, double letters trip me like a heave in the sidewalk.

Embarrass

Accommodate

Perseid meteor shower. Auto-spell draws a blank. Must Google it every August.

Environmentalist. I've been an environmentalist since age 18. Still can't spell it.

Connecticut

Massachusetts

Dammit, I misspelled Massachusetts. Again. If I lived there, I'd know it.

Bluster helps. I know inveigle and ingratiate.

How about you?

LiterateHiker 9 Jan 24
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15 comments

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2

To many.

too

1

Have to use google for lots of words on my phone, I use voice interaction.

3

Lots of words, but license trips me up all the time. I constantly reverse the c and s.

Me too, and I type it nearly every day, when telling people to bring their marriage license before I can marry them.

1

More than I care to list.

3

Recieve

twill Level 7 Jan 24, 2022
1

I'll just go with LOTS of words, the biggest problem I have is with the little word appall. I keep wanting to spell it apaul. Thankfully, now that I have an up to date computer spell check highlights it as incorrect.
I have had issues since I started school, it was compounded by the fact I am an identical twin and she aced math and many other subjects PLUS one teacher did not even bother to correct our papers when we were in 2nd or 3rd grade because we were just so damn cute. She'd just put a star at the top of the page - my mom finally figured out what was happening. She made them put us in separate classes and we did flash cards and stuff at home to catch up. If anyone noticed that my sister was acing math other subjects but I was not no one bother to figure out why or offer extra help. We are different in many other ways also. 180 on politics, religion and house keeping.
I love spell check!!!!

3

Having lived in Sapin for 34 years, and editing Spanish language articles, I find it very easy to use a single consonnant in certain English words that have a similaity to the Spanish word, but contain a double consonant.

2

I spell it right, but I have to sound out each syllable separately to not miss one of the I’s: initiative.

3

I am partially dyslexic so a number of words bother me, rules such as when to use one L or two, which words have an H after a W and which don't, when to use ee and when ea and which words end in OR, ER and AR, or ian or ion
Thank goodness for spell checkers and mnemonic pronunciation tricks

6

Tion or sion, as in motion and regression, what fool decided that there should be too different ways of spelling that ending, and then went round scattering them about at random, just to create confution/confusion. Bet he was a real pitfall trap for donkeys.

It is -ion that is the suffix (from the Latin suffix -io meaning relating to the action of) the T or the S are dependent on the word to which they are being added

Act-ion
Suspic-ion

Confution and confusion are two different words the Confution or more often confutation is the proving wrong of an assertion or ideal confusion is the inability to think clearly

@LenHazell53 Thank you, that clears up a big problem. So my English teacher at school was wrong then, when we got the lesson about 'tion', which I do remember. quite clearly, its no wonder I can't understand spelling when English teachers don't.

@Fernapple Unfortunately the English language curriculum has never been about why words are the way they are, at one time it was about how to use them properly, but for the past hundred years it has been solely about how to read them, write them down, and sometimes how to spell them.

@LenHazell53 Sadly yes. I observe that the spelling cult, along with several others is a big prop for Christian fundamentalism, especially in the US. You can block education by keeping atheist, socialist, anti-racist, environmentaist and overseas books out of the schools, but if that fails, then you can still prevent learning by getting all the time used up on decorative skills and pseudo-education, and making people believe that that is what education really is.

@Fernapple Well said

@Fernapple

"Environmentalist" trips me every time. And I've been an environmentalist since age 18.

5

Llanfairpwllgwyngyll : [en.wikipedia.org]

3

Ah…the vagaries of the English language and its spelling traps…they trip up the wary as well as the unwary!

6

The "i" before "e" except after "c" rule gets me in trouble a lot, since it's so often wrong.

Some exceptions are easy to remember such as "atheist" but others I really have to check myself, such as my favorite star cluster the "Pleiades" which is easier for me to spell in Hawaiian language "Makali'i" meaning little eyes.

For those who don't know the rule I referenced:

I before e, except after c
Or when sounded as 'a' as in 'neighbor' and 'weigh'
Unless the 'c' is part of a 'sh' sound as in 'glacier'
Or it appears in comparatives and superlatives like 'fancier'
And also except when the vowels are sounded as 'e' as in 'seize'
Or 'i' as in 'height'
Or also in '-ing' inflections ending in '-e' as in 'cueing'
Or in compound words as in 'albeit'
Or occasionally in technical words with strong etymological links to their parent languages as in 'cuneiform'
Or in other numerous and random exceptions such as 'science', 'forfeit', and 'weird'.

-ier or -er comparative is a terribly misused suffix which in slightly more so than -est for superlatives, for me the ONLY time they should be used is in the words Better and Best (where its use originates from). In all other cases it should be
More Fancy, less fancy or most fancy

the worst of the worst is when people use redundancies, such as saying that is the "most fanciest" or "yeah that is the more betterer one" cringe

Humph. Would it be easier to say "e" before "i" except ... ? That's a rhetorical question. Please don't answer.

5

Muslim, Muslem, why can't they decide if there should be an 'i' or an 'e' and Buddhist, whats it all about with the double 'd' ? Why do I have to remember to press the shift key when spelling Christian. Even the spell check on this site makes me do that. Oh and Mohammad, why the two 'm' and why can't they choose 'o' or 'u' and stick to one.

( Or maybe I just have a deep seated Freudian thing about religions, perhaps I should see a therapist. )

See also Moslem, an outdated spelling.

@anglophone Victorian books tend to favour "Mohammedan"

The Christian thing is because
A) Christian can be a proper name
and
B) a proper noun
Spelling christian with a lowercase c is only permissible when christian is being used as an adjective and even then only in American, Austrailian and sometimes South African English but never in British English.

Or Mussulman.

7

How about Albuquerque...I had to make sure I could spell it before I moved there...that would have been so embarrassing...😂...being from Connecticut...I was a natural when spelling it...connect i cut...😁...Taxachusetts is easy...MA 😹

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